Intel muscles into smartphones, tablets

Intel said its processors will be designed into smartphones and tablet PCs at three of the world's leading OEMs.

Intel Corp., the 800-pound gorilla of the semiconductor market, has finally entered the wireless court. After years of trying, the company said its processors will be designed into smartphones and tablet PCs at three of the world's leading OEMs.

"When great silicon and software technology meets great mobile and design innovation, amazing things can happen," Paul Otellini, Intel's president and CEO, said in a press release. "Our long-term relationship with Motorola Mobility will help accelerate Intel architecture into new mobile market segments."

Intel President and CEO Paul Otellini (right), joined onstage by Liu Jun, a senior vice president at Lenovo, at CES Wednesday.

The significance of these design wins for Intel cannot be overemphasized. For years, the company has struggled to break into the sector. It initially fought vainly against the dominance of ARM architecture. Even Intel's PC OEM customers worried that another near-monopoly would result if it gained a large following in the wireless equipment market. There was even speculation that its processors, most of which were designed for the personal computer market, were power hogs and would not be so optimal for the cellular industry.

Efforts to prove the doubters wrong led the company to pour billions into acquisitions and product development initiatives. Many of the acquisitions—some early in the last decade—failed to produce the desired results, and Intel could not make a dent in the sector. More recently, it began deploying its enormous internal engineering resources and the huge cash hoard built up in the PC microprocessor business. Intel has since developed chipsets and reference designs for the wireless market.

These efforts produced the Atom processor, which China Unicom, Lenovo, and Motorola will use. The agreements gave Intel the bragging rights it has long desired and signaled clearly that it won't walk away from the sector, despite the past failures. Few companies would like to have Intel as a rival, as Advanced Micro Devices Inc. (AMD) can attest.

Meanwhile, in England, a nightmarish journey is beginning for ARM, the IP company that rapidly built up a commanding customer base in the wireless sector on the strength of patronage by customers seeking to ward off another monopoly. ARM has maintained its leading position in this market, but Intel's latest design wins will most certainly break the dam wall. If other OEMs and telecoms embrace the Intel architecture (a lot of incentives from the company would help, especially in a price-challenged market), ARM's marketshare could slip dramatically over the next few years.

Of course, Intel could face another failure if its chips fail to catch fire. In that case, the company would be forced to try again. As Otellini said in a CES presentation, the world is transitioning from a focus on personal computers to a focus on personal computing. Intel cannot afford to be excluded from this wirelessly charged world. Somehow, it has to build on this toehold it has finally secured.

The article is talking about Intel getting into the wireless market, but not wireless technology; Intel is going to be in the handhelds and tablets that traditionally have been ARM based. I can't say what the power/performance tradeoff numbers are between Atom and the new/future generation of ARM cores, but I have an Atom based laptop that is not very impressive (as a laptop mind you). I think if the OS and system design delivers speed and long battery life then Intel will have a winner, if not then they will not achieve the success they aim for.

All 4 core APU for smartphone will start shipping using 28nm 2012. it still can't handle the full-HD 3D graphic. Smart phone application is still pushing for better & faster chips even in low power application. Your cost analysis is only right for foundries' node migration. It doesn't necessary right to compare Intel 22nm vs foundry's 32nm. Intel delayed two generation immersion litho (compared to foundries) introduction just to save cost. Intel does follow Moore's law in perfomance/cost/schedule so far. and multi-patterning is required in too many critical layers from 28/22nm in foundries, you don't need to be in 14nm.....

There are two monopoly words used in this article aimed at Intel. While ARM monopoly in the wireless sector is rewarded with words such as "maintain leading position". This aritcle is not meant to inform readers, but rather, to pre-empt Intel in order to pave the way for future lawsuits from ARM and AMD against Intel. I buy and support Intel products because of the jobs issue. The jobs created in the US from ARM and AMD is a drop in a bucket compare to jobs that Intel created. If you want to support jobs growth in the US, buy tech. products that contain Intel chips.

It's a lower margin business. It made no sense to use advanced technologies for the purpose of lower power consumption. 22 nm nodes' will be at least 40% more expensive than 32nm and 14 nm would be even much more when EUV litho kicks in. They should run the PC/server CPUs on new technology nodes and use the older generation technology at depreciated fabs to run lower margin products. Why can't Intel push the design architecture to get lower power same as ARM?